Our quintuplet of Best Picture nominee reviews continues today with Tony Gilroy's sharp, solid, and solemn corporate thriller Michael Clayton, a film that, in any other year, would stand a good chance at some awards love, but in this exceptional year seems almost destined to leave the Kodak theatre empty handed.
It's interesting, too, that the connection between the Academy and business is often closer than we think. It's a pretty widely held belief that Russell Crowe's Oscar for Gladiator over Tom Hanks superior turn in Cast Away was at least partly motivated by the need to crown a new major movie star. Hanks was already sitting on two Best Actor trophies, and one more wouldn't make much difference to his star power. But Russell Crowe being billed as 'Academy Award winner Russell Crowe'... that carries a little more box office heft. Ditto Mark Whalberg's nomination for The Departed, which is not to suggest that he didn't deserve it, but that the nomination could just as easily have gone to any number of brilliant actors in the film (Alec Baldwin, Jack Nicholson, Matt Damon). But giving the sturdy Whalberg the title of 'Academy Award nominee Mark Whalberg' is good for business (trust me, you'll see that phrase in upcoming trailers for The Happening).
But it's not so often that the Academy uses their spotlight to illuminate a screenwriter-turned-director (and again, this isn't to suggest it isn't deserved), and you can rest assured that Tony Gilroy has been crowned a new star in Hollywood.
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